'Failed to activate the license' on old tool versions - legacy activation method

You run into the error 'Failed to activate the license' when attempting to activate your license.

User account licensing (logging in with your Redgate ID to activate your license) doesn't work if you are using a very old version of a product (prior to 2017) or an unsupported tool (e.g. MySQL Compare) so if you have been invited to use a license in the customer portal and you try to activate it, you will get the error message:

To activate the license you will need to log in to the customer portal and remove yourself/the user. Then you can install the license using a product installer which you can download from the website and activating the license key.  

1. Go to the customer portal and login with your Redgate ID. 
2. Select Licenses and Legacy licenses, then click on the license tile you need to remove a user from:
   
   
   
   
3. Remove the allocated user by ticking the box next to their email address and clicking Remove (if you're not a license owner, you will need to request that the license owner does this).

If you would like to upgrade your old license please contact our sales team and they'll be happy to help.